Village
NEWS The
Issue 16
FREE COPY
News You Can Use
19 APRIL 2016
S
26
R EA
Y
26
YE
AR
S
4 MIMOSA ROAD, INDUSTRIAL AREA, HERMANUS TEL: 028-312 2280 • 028 312 1380 EMAIL: ccsplant@telkomsa.net
Let's Rethink the Bag
We all know the feeling. You’ve rushed into a shop or supermarket to stock up on groceries or buy just a few items you need urgently, and as you get to the check-out you remember that you’ve once again left your shopping bag in the car or forgotten it at home. So you reluctantly agree to the cashier’s friendly offer of that ubiquitous single-use plastic shopping bag which you know will just add to the growing pile in your kitchen cupboard. Worse still, is the fact that at some point you’ll have to clear out that cupboard, knowing that your stash of plastic bags, which have on average been used for only 20 minutes, will contribute to the 8 billion single-use plastic bags that are sold annually in South Africa and, after being discarded, take decades and even
centuries to disintegrate. In the Cape Whale Coast, which relies heavily on marine eco-tourism, fishing and aquaculture, it goes without saying that preserving the health of our oceans should be a top priority. One of the easiest ways in which we can contribute to the protection of our natural environment by keeping it litterfree is to remember to take along our reusable shopping bags and to say no to the purchase of single-use plastic bags. It’s that simple – and yet, as consumers we have become so used to the convenience of plastic bags on a daily basis that many of us are struggling to commit to banning them from our lives forever.
it’s difficult to implement the switch to reusable bags. What we all need to motivate us is more awareness, buy-in from local shops and supermarkets, and support from local government. Which is exactly what Rethink the Bag, a nationwide campaign which has the vision of a plastic shopping bag-free South Africa, is determined to accomplish. Initiated in 2010 by the Two Oceans Aquarium environmental campaigner, Hayley McLellan, Rethink the Bag is now endorsed by Spar Western Cape. At the Gateway Centre, Gansbaai and Kleinmond Spar’s, customers can drop off any of their single use plastic shopping bags, and in exchange for every ten plastic bags you can get a re-usable shopping bag for free. Continued on P3.
Get The Village EXPLORER lifestyle section in this issue of The Village NEWS.
How beautiful is nature? These flamingos were recently enjoying a peaceful afternoon at the Vermont Salt Pan. The Vermont Salt Pan is an integral part of Vermont’s Green Belt system. It is a mildly saline wetland also classified as a ‘critically endangered ecosystem’. The Salt Pan is situated in a land depression of about 17,5 ha and has only a floodwater outflow. The pan has a system of feeder reed-covered wetlands stretching eastwards for 1 km and its water levels are largely dependent on prevailing groundwater levels. Wildlife and birdlife are well represented with up to 600 plus flamingos frequenting the Salt Pan sometimes for up to six months a year. On the eastern edge of the pan a Milkwood woodland thicket under which marine shell remains can still be found – evidence of the Khoisan people who inhabited this area some 2 000 to 3 000 years ago. Source: Hermanus Online, written by: Duncan Heard Picture: Wessel Dreyer